


Run and Live

by Tish



Category: I Follow Rivers - Lykke Li (Music Video)
Genre: Gen, Trick or Treat: Chocolate Box, Trick or Treat: Treat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-28
Updated: 2017-10-28
Packaged: 2019-01-25 12:23:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 322
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12531276
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tish/pseuds/Tish
Summary: He ran, but there was no escape.





	Run and Live

**Author's Note:**

  * For [bold_seer](https://archiveofourown.org/users/bold_seer/gifts).



He ran. He always ran. Weary with fatigue, shaking with cold and hunger, he ran. He'd stumble, stagger through a thicket, slide in the mud, feel his feet freeze in the snow. He ran as though his life depended upon it. For it did.

She was always there, indomitable and never tiring as she paced step by step, following as he ran.

He stumbled, breathing heavily and drank in gasps and gulps from the river. It was cold, and crisp from the melting snow, but it renewed him, nourished him somehow. He'd steal a glance back, and she was there in the distance, always walking in measured steps.

He found the strength to stand and resume the flight, running through forests, along streams, and over snow-covered fields. He couldn't let her catch him. He never slept, or perhaps he slept as he ran, dreaming he was running, running as he dreamt.

Then the river opened up to the sea, spreading out before him. Ice chunks floated in the frigid waters, the cold hand of death promised by the ocean. He stopped, heaving cold air into his burning lungs and turned. Her legs were a metronome as she closed the distance, his heart beating in time to her pace.

He couldn't run any more, he had to accept her. Tears filled his eyes as his legs started to buckle under him. The warmth of her embrace surprised him, and he sobbed into her breast. He had no reason to fear her, for he understood now.

Her warmth melted the snow, nourished the vegetation, and dried the trees. He could eat, and build a fire, and shelter in comfort. Her warmth sustained him to live and bring forth new life. At peace now, he could watch his family grow and knew that one day he would nourish the vegetation with his body, as she nourished with her soul.

She wasn't Death, she was Life.


End file.
